New TV comedy, Postmodern Family, premiers on ABC this week. The show follows a family of avatars living in a futuristic, utopian, virtual suburb of LA.
The main family is a group of time travelers who can only partially control when and where they go, leading to numerous comedic situations. The family also hangs out with the mother’s brother in law, a homosexual avatar who is legally married to a horse that can talk. The two of them also recently adopted an illegal immigrant with magical powers.
Since virtual bestiality-based marriage has only recently been legalized in California, the two families must stick together to fight the prejudice of the aliens who torment them in their dreams.
The family’s grandfather lives next door, though he is a demented old man who thinks he is the reincarnation of Atahualpa, the former Incan emperor, who was famous for marrying younger, Colombian women.
The show takes a brilliant spin on ironic, dystopian magical realism and beautifully invokes the meta-narrative. Overall, it’s a brilliant pastiche that really pushes the limits of our sense of temporal linearity, a must watch.
